European Art: 14th-16th Centuries

Masterworks of the Early Renaissance, the High Renaissance and Mannerism make up the Museum’s extensive collection of 14th- to 16th-century European art. Representing both Northern and Southern Europe, the collection includes a large selection of devotional and religious paintings, as well as secular subject matter generated after the Humanist foundations of the Renaissance began to take hold. Exquisite works by Paolo Veneziano and Giovanni di Paolo, as well as an exceptional Guariento di Arpo altarpiece, anchor the Museum’s stunning sample of gold-ground panel paintings.Flemish tapestries, created from wool and silk by skilled weavers, convey sacred and secular stories that were beloved by the Western world. Jacopo Bassano, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi and Raphael are represented by rich oil paintings of religious scenes, and their works are displayed alongside magnificent examples of such Northern European masters as Lucas Cranach the Elder, Dieric Bouts and Hans Memling. The portraits of Giorgione, Giovanni Bellini and El Greco reflect the great diversity of subject matter in the collection.